Death of a tennis art: Is this the end for serve and volley?

Ivan Lendl, twice Wimbledon runner-up and now Andy Murray's coach, believes serve and volley is a dying art in tennis.

Boris Becker, Wimbledon's youngest men's champion at the age of 17 in 1985, was renowned for his trademark diving volleys. The German was powerful in the serve and wonderfully athletic at the net.

Feisty New Yorker John McEnroe was not blessed with great serving power but his speed, aggression and razor-sharp reflexes enabled him to finish off many a rally with a perfectly executed volley.

Australian Ken Rosewall adopted serve and volley during his career as a way of shortening rallies and therefore boosting his longevity. It was no coincidence that he played in his last Wimbledon final at the age of 39.

Sweden's Stefan Edberg could not match the serve of his rival Becker, but his sublime volleying ability helped him to several notable wins over the German. He sometimes employed slower serves to afford himself more time to get to the net.

One of the most naturally gifted serve and volley players, Pat Rafter combined pinpoint placement with silky work at the net. The Australian twice fell short in the Wimbledon final but won two U.S. Opens in the late 1990s.

Australian legend Rod Laver, four times a Wimbledon champion during the 1960s, played serve and volley better than anyone in an era where the technique was more common.

Martina Navratilova was one of the few serve-volleyers in the women's game, and the style helped the Czech-American star win a record nine Wimbledon titles.

Big-serving Richard Krajicek's 1996 success is testament to Wimbledon's benefits for serve and volley players. The Dutchman's triumph at the All England Club was his solitary grand slam title.

Wimbledon's most successful male player, Pete Sampras, had a phenomenal all-round game, and the American's serve and volley expertise was one of his most potent weapons as he won seven titles and 14 grand slams overall.

HIDE CAPTION

The great serve and volley players

Boris Becker

John McEnroe

Ken Rosewall

Stefan Edberg

Pat Rafter

Rod Laver

Martina Navratilova

Richard Krajicek

Pete Sampras

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Former world No. 1 Ivan Lendl says serve and volley is too difficult in modern tennis

Hitting power and new technologies mean players now stay at the baseline

Roger Federer is finding it harder to serve and volley, says Tim Henman

Wimbledon legend Pete Sampras believes the technique is a dying art

(CNN) -- It used to be one of the great sights in tennis -- the likes of Boris Becker and John McEnroe flying around the net, executing flawless volleys to follow up precision serves.

But the fearsome hitting power of modern tennis players has destroyed an art once finessed by some of Wimbledon's greatest champions, according to eight-time grand slam winner Ivan Lendl.

Czech legend Lendl believes the bold playing style -- mastered to thrilling effect on grass by legends such as Rod Laver, Stefan Edberg, Martina Navratilova and Pat Rafter -- has been outdated by advances in technology and training.

"The reason the guys don't serve and volley is mainly because of the spin on the ball that is given by the string and also by the strength of the guys and their technique," Lendl told CNN.

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"So to come to the net and be fishing for that ball when the guy takes a full swing and it has 8,000 rpm on that ball ... it becomes very, very difficult to volley and put away."

In the next two weeks, Lendl is chasing the Wimbledon title -- the only grand slam that eluded him as a player -- as a coach for British number one Andy Murray.

But Lendl, who is now a U.S. citizen, appears unlikely to encourage the Scot to make frequent forays from the baseline.

"There are only a handful of guys that can do it right now -- Roger (Federer) being one of them," Lendl said.

But even Federer, whose serve-and-volley prowess helped secure six Wimbledon titles, has abandoned the technique.

Tim Henman, a four-time Wimbledon semifinalist and one of the few players of his generation to embrace the serve-and-volley game, thinks Federer has been forced to adapt his style at the London venue.

"He used to (serve and volley), but I think the conditions of the grass have changed so much -- the balls are probably heavier, the courts are much, much slower, so there is far less serve and volley," Henman told CNN.

However, the former British number one maintains that coming to the net can pay off at Wimbledon, adding: "I think you've got to really keep attacking on grass, it's the hardest surface to defend on."

Lost art

Yet Pete Sampras, the most lethal exponent of serve and volley ever seen at the All England Club, is less optimistic about the future of the technique.

"I developed the serve and volley game at a young age. I started at 13, 14 -- if you're 20 and don't serve and volley, it's too late."

Sampras concurs with Lendl that the state-of-the-art equipment used by today's players has hastened the decline of serve-volley.

"Technology might be an issue because with these big Babolat rackets, they don't need to volley, you just hit the crap out of the ball. Whereas we grew up with the wood racket, so you had to hit it properly," said the seven-time Wimbledon champion.

"It'd be nice to have someone come up that serves and volleys. It's definitely a lost art, and it's unfortunate."

Sampras would not be the only one saddened if the era of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic -- so often hailed as a golden one for tennis -- also came to be defined by the erosion of one the game's most exhilarating skills.